Follow the crazy adventures of an Alabama cyclist taking on the Race Across America in 2015.

Anatomy of a bike crash

Since it has been a little over 14 months since my last crash, I thought I would go out and wreck my bike today. Well, OK, that’s not exactly why I fell off my bike going 25mph, but the end result is the same! Here’s how it all played out: I left my house for a 50 mile training ride armed with three bottles for the heat. I made it about 10 miles just past Liberty Park on Sicard Hollow when I noticed that my rear tire was nearly flat. Fortunately, another rider was stopped on the side of the road making a phone call, and he offered me his pump since I wasn’t sure if there was much CO2 left in my CO2 cartridge that had already been used once or twice. I quickly changed the tube, putting in my spare which I knew had a slow leak in it, pumped everything back up, and rode straight home to put in a better tube. I also decided to put on a new tire that I had bought a while back and not used yet.

Excited to get going again, I railed the 12% downhill outside my house into the 90 degree righthand turn at the bottom of the hill at about 30mph. No problem, everything felt fine. Less than 100 meters later is another 90 degree turn at the next intersection. Still going about 25mph I turned left at this intersection but the brand new tire grabbed really hard and my momentum nearly instantly overcorrected the bike pushing it to the other side. With my pedals still clipped in, this propelled the bike up into the air on top of me with me sliding on my back underneath it all the way across the intersection into the gutter on the other side of the road. I must have landed softly somehow as I’m not sore anywhere other than the middle of my back where I had a bike pump in my back jersey pocket. With just a little bit of road rash on the left side of my body, I definitely call myself lucky. Here’s the maps and my HR data during the wreck:

Climbing out of my driveway after putting on new tire at the house

Descending the steep hill on Laurel View Rd

Wrecking and sliding across Laurel View Ln intersection

Gathering my water bottles and checking my bike

Deciding to continue on

Deciding to return to the house and fix my brake shifter lever (turned inwards)